community pannel
Frank Dominguez
Since 1994 Frank Dominguez has been a familiar voice to classical music listeners on WDAV. Over the years he has played a crucial part in station programming decisions through various roles and currently leads the station as General Manager/Host and Producer of Night Music and Concíerto.
Prior to coming to WDAV, Frank began his radio career at 90.7 WFAE, where he hosted the popular Sunday evening music program, Nightscapes. In addition he has worked extensively in local theater as an actor and director, including productions for Actor’s Theatre of Charlotte, CAST, Theatre Charlotte and Opera Carolina.
Dr. Marcus R. Pyle
Dr. Marcus R. Pyle is the Franco Professor of the Humanities and Assistant Professor of Music at Davidson College and concert violist. His prior appointments have been at Tufts University and MIT. Pyle is a graduate of the Juilliard School (M.A.) where his teachers were Samuel Rhodes and Karen Dreyfus, the Royal Academy of Music in London (BMus), Dartmouth College (M.A. in Comparative Literature), and New York University (Ph.D. in Historical Musicology). As a performer he has played with the numerous orchestra including the Royal Ballet Sinfonia, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Clear Lake Symphony, Las Colinas Symphony, Garland Symphony, Dallas Chamber Orchestra, in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Royal Festival Hall, Cadogan Hall, and can be seen in the movie Annie (2014).
Brenda Porter-Dewitt
Brenda Porter-DeWitt is a retired Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools teacher and administrator who has devoted her life and career as a fierce advocate of collaborations that bring diversity of thoughts leading to actions that benefit the community as a whole. Music as an art form has been the catalyst that has had the ability to accomplish this challenging but crucial goal.
She is currently serving as President and performing member of the Charlotte Contemporary Ensemble, a choral performing group, which has been a mainstay in the Charlotte region since its inception in 1979. Hehlehlooyuh: A Celebration of Music by Black Composers, will be presented by Caritas, an acapella choral group, in partnership with CCE on April 22, 2023. This will be a celebration of non-idiomatic choral music written by Black composers.
She has performed with the Charlotte Contemporary Ensemble for more than 40 years, including the opening of the Blumenthal Performing Arts Center and the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts +Culture.
Additional collaborations include performances with Opera Carolina in the production of Porgy & Bess, and Margaret Garner, as well as with the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra, VOX, and Carolina Voices. Performances also include numerous appearances at the Piccolo Spoleto Music Festival in Charleston, SC. Brenda Porter-DeWitt also serves as a board and performing member of the Palmetto Voices Spiritual Ensemble. She has served as Handbell Choir Director at Friendship Missionary Baptist Church in Charlotte, NC since 1994 and has also been a member of the choir there since 1979.
Tara Villa Keith
Tara Villa Keith is in her twentieth season as orchestra director and associate professor at Davidson College. In Sanford, North Carolina, she was the music director of the Lee County Community Orchestra for eleven seasons. She has also served as a guest conductor and pre-concert speaker for the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra where she was the premiere instructor for their Symphony 101 adult education program.
In 2019, Keith was recognized as an Honored Artist of The American Prize, a series of non-profit national competitions in the performing arts. She has enjoyed guest conducting throughout the eastern U.S., Bulgaria, Germany, and in the Czech Republic as a 2008 League of American Orchestras Women Conductors Grant recipient.
Originally from Baltimore, Maryland, Keith grew up studying percussion and piano at the Preparatory of the Peabody Conservatory. Keith continues to serve as a clinician throughout North Carolina and enjoys giving guest lectures and presentations.
Keenan Harmon
Keenan Harmon is a trumpeter and soloist in the Carolinas and an announcer with WDAV hosting the Sunday Night Music. He does regular masterclasses, lectures about performing and brass pedagogy while maintaining a large studio of students. Mr. Harmon works regularly with chamber music, commercial music, and performing artists and is committed to connecting music to the community around where it’s performed.
Dr. Sequina DuBose
Dr. Sequina DuBose launched her debut album, Blurred Lines: 21st Century Hybrid Vocal Literature, on the Albany Records label in 2022. She has performed as Donna Elvira in Mozart’s Don Giovanni and as Clara in Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess with Opera Carolina.
She was soprano soloist in Wynton Marsalis’ work, All Rise, with the Tulsa Symphony and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra (JLCO), premiered the electronic chamber opera, Nightingale and the Tower (Rebecca Comerford and Grammy Award-winner Mikael Jorgensen) with Ojai Youth Opera Company, and was a soloist and ensemble member in a concert tour and Metropolitan Opera performance with Kathleen Battle in Underground Railroad: A Spiritual Journey, among other notable engagements.
Dr. DuBose has presented her research on 21st -century hybrid vocal literature at the 2021 NATS Summer Workshop, the Music by Women Festival, the 2nd International Scientific and Practical Conference (Azerbaijan National Conservatory), and in masterclasses and lecture recitals. Dr. DuBose serves as Assistant Professor of Classical and Contemporary Voice, and Coordinator of the Musical Theater Certificate program at UNC Charlotte.
